Behind The Scenes of The Lion of God - Wrestling with God, Words, and Purpose
Creator's Commentary
This edition isn’t about Part 2 so much as it’s about; …..
Wrestling
I have absolutely no process for writing a story. I knew I wanted to tell a story centered around the biblical truth of Ephesians 6:12.
"For we do not wrestle with flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against the spiritual wickedness in high places.”
I knew I wanted to explore some old-fashioned Paul Harvey-like fictional possibilities. My own version of 'The Rest of the Story’.
I had no outline. No overarching plan. I had no idea how many episodes or chapters there would be. I had a half-baked beginning, no middle, and not even a foggy idea where the ending would be.
I just sat down and began writing. In practice, that looks like me late at night, sitting on my couch, typing with two thumbs on an iPhone Notes app.
I’ve had this feeling that this is something that is needed. A nudge, a question, “What are you waiting on?” Maybe it is something needed for only me. Maybe it is something needed for someone else. I don’t know, maybe it's both.
But it's been on my mind for a few years now, “You need to do this.” “It’s time to get started." “Tick-Tock, you're 66 years old now, old man.” "Do it."
Then like Ariel, you snap out of living in the past and say, “It’s time to go to work".
So, I just started typing, with just one idea and nothing else. And it feels like I'm wrestling. Wrestling with God. Wrestling with myself to believe I can do it. Wrestling with myself to find the right words. Wrestling to tell the right story, the right way.
Discovery Writing
While writing this story, for some reason, I Googled my writing style. I was surprised to learn my style of writing is known as “Discovery Writing” or sometimes called “pantsing.” It is flying-by-the-seat-of-your-pants writing.
Stephen King compares it to excavating a fossil. You see a small part, a few old bones, and slowly uncover what is underneath.
That is the way I write. It’s also the way I teach, and the way I speak to a group. I take an idea and let it rip.
Usually, maybe 80% of the time, something good would happen. What little creative brain I have would stay one step ahead of my iPhone two-thumb typing mode.
I would write a chapter, like Chapter 1, and find a place where there was a good cliffhanger and stop. Then I’d let it sit for a day. My mind would then be on autopilot, in the background, thinking “What's next?” Until finally something else, one other piece of the fossil would pop out, and I’d start typing again. Without much of a thought about where in the world I was headed. And Chapter 2 would emerge. Then in another few days, another fossil fragment would emerge.
Occasionally I would take a swing and it would be a total miss. I would write, and in the clear light of the next day, I would say, “That is some crap." And so, I would simply hit delete. I would throw it away, and then before long a new thought would hit me. “Ahhh, yes, let's go this way.”
That is how I have done it.
Each episode you will read is pretty much written as I originally wrote it. I had to come back and polish things up, and make things cohesive, but the basic content is exactly how I “discovered” it.
Purpose
Part of my enjoyment in writing is in explaining and exploring. I'm really telling MYSELF a story. Later, you, the reader, are given the final version of that endeavor.
It’s like taking the pieces of an old jigsaw puzzle you discover on a dusty back shelf in what is now a spare bedroom. The pieces are in a Ziploc bag, labeled “Ariel” with a Magic Marker. You put the pieces together. The edge pieces first. Oops, a few edge pieces are missing. Then you work on the middle, only to discover that many of the middle pieces are missing as well.
Now, who would keep pieces of a kid's puzzle in a sealed Ziploc bag, with a label written on it with a permanent marker? If you're speaking literally, the answer is my wife Linda. If it belonged to the kids, she has an emotional attachment to it and it’s hard to throw away. It represents memories that she treasures.
But if you're asking the question on a personal, creative level, then ME. My phone has many partial puzzles in it. Stories half-baked. Maybe just a few sentences.
I take the pieces I have, then imagine the “rest of the story” that fits together with what was given. I want to give it PURPOSE.
Take the verse, “We do not wrestle against flesh and blood.” Now put a story behind that. Not just words. People, places, situations. Make it real. Give it life, give it characters, give it PURPOSE.
That is what I enjoy, completing the puzzle. Telling MYSELF a story. Making it all have purpose.
Your brothers threw you down a well and left you for dead? That has purpose. Significant purpose.
You’ve been hurt, maligned, beaten, crucified? That has purpose. Significant purpose.
You have cancer and you're scared to death? Guess what. Maybe, just maybe, THAT has significant purpose as well.
My friends, Thank You coming on this journey with me.